Fans were gutted when Neil Gaiman's Sandman was not produced for television, but the rumours weren't too far off. American Gods will be produced for American television on HBO, io9 reports; and Tom Hanks, the actor who acts in everything that requires an actor, will be an executive producer for this six-season-long production.

The series-in-development, revolving around the question "are you a god if no one believes in you?" is executive produced by [Gary] Goetzman and Hanks, with Bob Richardson, and Gaiman on board as executive producer and writer. 

Each of the six seasons will be of 10-12, hour-long episodes with a budget of around $35-40 million per season, targeted to debut on the cable powerhouse in 2013 at the earliest [...]American Gods will be effects-heavy to do justice to the awe-inspiring power of the divine beings. "There are some crazy things in there. We'll probably be doing more effects in there than it's been done on a television series," said Goetzman.